When I practice Bassui's koan during zazen I become very sleepy as soon as I turn inward looking for the essence of mind. I do not have this problem when I practice this koan in daily life and I also never had this problem in the past when I did vipassana or mu. Why does this happen and what to do?

December 7, 2012, 3:09 pm

MU is also a Koan, so following MU you have no problems, yet with other koans you feel sleepy, maybe you are trying to use the other koans to understand something? Any koan you use, it is about the blood and flesh becoming one with it, repeating it over and over again, not using it as some kind of quiz. So do you get sleepy because you cannot grasp the answer? It is really not about trying to understand anything. We use koans to practice become One. So if you were to use your thoughts, then you are approaching it only from your awareness, right?

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